Fixing a computer with hosed permissions & activation problems?

I offered to repair a computer for an acquaintance, but I've run into a billion brick walls while doing so. This is an HP Pavilion dv6 running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

The user got himself locked out of the C:\ drive and a whole bunch of stuff either refused to work or refused to launch, including some Windows services.

The C:\ drive was initially showing up with no information when I opened up Computer - just "NTFS", double clicking on it gave me a C:\ drive is inaccessible. Access is denied error.

I checked the permissions on the root level of the drive - I noticed only the Administrators group and the SYSTEM group were in there. I compared it against my machine's C:\ drive, which had an Authenticated Users and Users group.

I restarted into Safe Mode and for some reason the user account (which is supposed to have admin rights) was NOW able to access the C:\ drive. As a test, I enabled the hidden Administrator account and attempted to access the C:\ drive in both normal and safe mode - success, but Windows services were still messing up.

While in safe mode I disabled UAC and also added the Authenticated Users and Users groups (following the same permissions that were on my own computer's C:\ drive) and applied it to the root level of the C:\ drive (I did not propogate the permissions to the folders below it in fear of breaking something). However, I'm fairly sure that the directories below the root level are also messed up. I also checked to make sure the user account was in the Administrator group by using net localgroup Administrators (had to use the command line since Home Premium doesn't allow access to the snap-in).

After making these changes, I was able to boot into normal mode, log in as the user, and run most programs. However, I still have a second problem - the machine is claiming that it is no longer genuine with the dreaded black background.

I ran a sfc /scannow in normal Windows and I was unable to get it to fix anything - it said it found corrupted files but was unable to repair them. Later on I ran it in the recovery mode (using the offline switches) and it said it didn't find anything that needed to be repaired. Let me know if you need me to upload the CBS log.

I ran a chkdsk /R and it didn't find anything either.

I attached the MGA Diag tool log.

I tried to start a repair install but it's requiring me to deauthorize iTunes, but in order to do that I have to get the password from the user. Unfortunately, I can't contact the user until Tuesday.

Anyone have any ideas what I should do to try to get the permissions on his system back to normal and re-authorize Windows?

Dangit, I knew I forgot something. Here you go.

Golden said:

Hi,

Thanks. The report points to several problems, but I've not seen these before. I'll ask NoelDP to look at these, but in the meantime, what happens if you try to activate this installation again using the product key on the COA sticker?

Regards,
Golden

I'm unable to do the in-place repair install (and therefore, unable to enter the COA key) because I would have to deauthorize/uninstall iTunes. I won't be able to contact the user about that until Tuesday, so I have to fix this computer the "hard way" or wait until then. I'm genuinely curious about what's broken and I'd like to go through the troubleshooting steps before using the repair install solution just to see if this sort of problem can be remedied.

NoelDP said:

Please post the requested registry query results :)

Sorry about that Noel - I was on my smartphone when I responded to golden and didn't have access to the laptop.

Here's the results:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\>ICACLS C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData
C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(F)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\>ICACLS C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\Networkservice
C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\Networkservice NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(F)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\>ICACLS C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles
C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(F)
NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(CI)(IO)(F)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(F)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
BUILTIN\Users:(I)(RX)
BUILTIN\Users:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
CREATOR OWNER:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\>ICACLS C:\Windows
C:\Windows NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(F)
NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(CI)(IO)(F)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(M)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(M)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
BUILTIN\Users:(RX)
BUILTIN\Users:(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
CREATOR OWNER:(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\>ICACLS C:\Windows\System32
C:\Windows\System32 NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(F)
NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(CI)(IO)(F)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(M)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(M)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
BUILTIN\Users:(RX)
BUILTIN\Users:(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
CREATOR OWNER:(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\>

Let me know what you need me to do.

Ran the command you told me to run. It was successful with no problems. After the reboot the not genuine notification is gone, but the wallpaper is still black. I'd like to get his original wallpaper back, if it's still cached/stored somewhere.

Also, when I hit "Copy" to copy the MGADiag, I get an error about failing to create output files, but it copies anyway. The error that comes up is "Failed to create output files, hr = 0x800706b5. Please contact support". Is this normal? Does this indicate something else should also be fixed, or can it be safely ignored? I remember there was a similar error code in the first MGA Diag:

Licensing Data-->
On a computer running Microsoft Windows non-core edition, run 'slui.exe 0x2a 0x800700B7' to display the error text.
Error: 0x800700B7

However, after running that command this error seems to be gone in the second MGADiag log.

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\>ICACLS C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData
C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(F)
                                                  BUILTIN\Administrators:(F)
                                                  NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE:(I)(OI)(CI)(F)
                                                  NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(F)
                                                  NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                                  NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F)
                                                  NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                                  BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(F)
                                                  BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                                  BUILTIN\Users:(I)(RX)
                                                  BUILTIN\Users:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
                                                  CREATOR OWNER:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\>ICACLS C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\Networkservice
C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\Networkservice NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(F)
                                          BUILTIN\Administrators:(F)
                                          NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE:(OI)(CI)(F)
                                          NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(F)
                                          NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                          NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F)
                                          NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                          BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(F)
                                          BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                          BUILTIN\Users:(I)(RX)
                                          BUILTIN\Users:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
                                          CREATOR OWNER:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\>ICACLS C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles
C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(F)
                           NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(CI)(IO)(F)
                           NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F)
                           NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                           BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(F)
                           BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                           BUILTIN\Users:(I)(RX)
                           BUILTIN\Users:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
                           CREATOR OWNER:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\>